The biggest stories in Gwinnett County in 2017 range from Tommy Hunter's now-infamous Facebook posts and a police scandal to transit and a minor league baseball team changing its name. And the home of its famous groundhog closed.

Gwinnett’s biggest, most important and most-read stories of 2017

Gwinnett is one of Georgia’s biggest counties — and in 2017, it was among the state’s busiest and buzziest, too.

The ever-diversifying metro Atlanta community of more than 900,000 had its fair share of headline-grabbing news this year, everything from racial tension and a police scandal to a minor league baseball team swapping monikers.

Here’s a look back at five of Gwinnett County’s biggest, most important and most read stories of 2017 (and a few more honorable mentions, too).

Hunter’s District 3, which stretches from the Centerville area through Snellville and Grayson and around toward Braselton, has a significant black population and almost elected Hunter’s Democratic opponent in 2016’s election.

The organization let folks submit name suggestions and later released a handful of finalists (the Sweet Teas, the Hush Puppies, the Buttons, etc.) before ultimately choosing a name out of, ahem, left field.

The fate of Beau, and his February prognostications, is still unclear.

The first General Beauregard Lee looks at his sign while preparing for Groundhog Day in 1995. Lee, the South's "official weather prognosticator," lived at Yellow River Game Ranch in Gwinnett County, Ga. Upon his death, the ranch replaced him with his “bachelor nephew.